Help for English Students

Module C: Conflicting Perspectives Images and Metaphors

One way to approach the concept of Conflicting Perspectives for Module C is through imagery and extended metaphor. Conflicting Perspectives are about how people standing in differently places, see things (events, personalities, situations) in different ways. You know what else people see differently depending on their perspective? Art.

This is “Ascending and Descending” by MC Escher. Depending on how you look at it, the figures are either climbing or walking down stairs. The staircase is also endlessly rising or falling; again, depending on your perspective. From this image we can draw two ideas (thesis statements):

Conflicting perspectives are an inevitable part of the human experience (the figures are trapped within the staircase, heading in opposite directions).

Conflicting perspectives are shaped by differing contexts (how you look at the image directs whether you see the figures as “ascending” or “descending”).

This is Salvador Dali’s portrait of his wife, entitled “My Wife Nude”. This image shows a classic nude portrait of Gala, Dali’s wife, echoed by a Gala-shaped building in the background. This image also inspires two ideas about Conflicting Perspectives:

Conflicting Perspectives are shaped by both intimacy and distance (when viewed up close, Gala is Dali’s beloved wife; from a distance, she becomes a construct).

Conflicting Perspectives can exist within an individual (it is Dali, the artist, who sees his wife in these two ways).

These images could be used as related material by students who are confident in visual analysis; or they could be used as extended metaphors to shape the ideas in an essay.

Hi Mrs Langford.
I’m doing Julius Caesar and I was wondering if it’s a good idea to say that Shakespeare presents two conflicting perspectives in the play but uses techniques to support one perspective and over the other; bias, urges his audience to do the same. For example, in the funeral orations, he allows Brutus to speak to the crowd first, before Antony does, so that Antony has the opportunity to sway the audience and convince them to recognise Brutus’ and the conspirators flawed claims regarding the conspiracy plot.

Hi Angela
That is a good point. No composer presents conflicting perspectives in a balanced manner and you will often get questions in this module that ask about bias. You should also consider the conflicting perspectives within Brutus and on the situation of governing Rome as well as the event on Caesar’s assassination.
Hope that helps,
Mrs L.